Injuries Sideline Superstars, Put Championship In Question

The first round of the NBA Playoffs have left a few championship runs in question after superstars have gone down with injuries.

Steph Curry went down in game one against the Houston Rockets with a sprained ankle after he misstepped inbounding the ball. He missed two games and came back for game four but things went from bad to worse.

On Monday, the Warriors found out that Curry has a grade one MCL sprain to his right knee. The injury occurred seconds before halftime when Curry slipped on a wet spot and went down awkwardly.

Curry is going to miss at least two weeks and then will be reevaluated after that two week time period. Bad news for Warriors fans but at least he hasn't been ruled out for the rest of the season.

The Clippers were not so lucky in game four and not just because of the 98-84 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.

In game four, Chris Paul attempted to steal the ball from Portland's Gerald Henderson but miss and immediately grimaced in pain. Paul will miss the rest of the postseason due to a broken right hand that required surgery Tuesday morning.

If that wasn't bad enough for the Clippers, Blake Griffin will also miss the rest of the season after reinjuring his left quad. The same quad that caused him to miss 45 games in the second half of the season. An MRI showed no structural damage but the Clippers are shutting him down to make sure that the injury heals properly this time.

Without Paul and Griffin the Clippers will be lucky to win another game against Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers. If Los Angeles does somehow beat the Trail Blazers, there's no way they're beating a Golden State team with or without Curry in the semifinals.

The Warriors should be okay without Curry for the remainder of the series against the Rockets and for three games against most likely the Trail Blazers. The series between Portland and Golden State won't be easy but I still think the Warriors edge out even if Curry doesn't play.

However, that's the end of the road for them if Curry's unable to return this season. There's not a chance that the Warriors beat the Spurs or the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals without Curry.

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